prick-song

H. had alwayes bookes of prick-song lyeing on his Table: e.g. of H. Lawes &c.

Characters from 17th Century Histories and Chronicles Various

The freshness of the air fanned her deliciously; larks were climbing the sky singing their prick-song, scores of finches crossed the slopes, dipping from bush to bush.

Little Novels of Italy Madonna Of The Peach-Tree, Ippolita In The Hills, The Duchess Of Nona, Messer Cino And The Live Coal, The Judgment Of Borso Maurice Henry Hewlett

He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom; the very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist; a gentleman of the very first house, of the first and second cause.

Act II. Scene IV. Romeo and Juliet 1914

The point was that it should be extempore; if written down it ceased to be true descant, and was then called 'prick-song.'

Shakespeare and Music With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries 1900

University gentlemen of birth thought it nothing out of the way to learn all the mysteries of both prick-song (a _written_ part) and descant (an _extempore_ counterpoint), and to solace their weary hours by singing "in parts."

Shakespeare and Music With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries 1900

It occurs in "The First Part of Airs, French, Polish, and others together, some in tableture and some in prick-song," 1605.

Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age 1888

Any song which was printed in various parts was called a prick-song, to distinguish it from one sung extemporaneously or by ear.

Sabbath in Puritan New England Alice Morse Earle 1881

The word prick-song occurs not only in all the musical books, but in the literature of the time, and in

Sabbath in Puritan New England Alice Morse Earle 1881

And of the chaplains and clerks he instituted in that dormitory, one was to teach grammars and another prick-song.

The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4 Horace Walpole 1757

"captain of compliments" is reputed for "the very butcher of a silk button," and "fights as you sing prick-song, -- rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom."

Impressions of America During The Years 1833, 1834, and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume II. Tyrone Power 1818